That Time I Turned a Mean Rooster into Bacon

We got the pails. Let's go. That's good news, Josiah. The little calf is not on the mom right now. Let's get out there and get her in before she nurses. We don't want her to nurse. We want to be able to get the milk. Okay, come on, I'll hold your hand. Baseball bat. Before we go get the cows— hey, Josiah, will you put up the lanes while I speak to the folks here? We found out if said nothing was A2A2, which is a beta casein that would make his offspring's milk more digestible. Rebecca was right there sitting at her computer, got the email, and, uh, we opened it up and what did it say?

It said it was killing us.

We wanted to see it at the same time, pull it up, and then we did. It said A2B, which we didn't know what that meant.

It seemed good because it had A2 in it, but And then we ran it down farther and the expanded beta casein test reflected in the report detects a variant.

So it's basically A1.

So it's A2, he's got one A2 gene and then he has the variant.

So which is the A1 gene. Alright, yep, he's an A1 guy. Here's what I feel like. We gotta eat somebody.

Right?

So 50 chance, 50% chance it's gonna be A2. A2, it's a heifer.

Yeah, and Flossie, she's coming up, I mean, in a couple weeks.

Yeah, and we have two A2-A2 heifers that are young and could come up in the milk. And they're gonna— we're gonna have two cows. That's, that's two calves a year.

Yeah.

And if it's an A1-A2 heifer, we can technically eat her because we got to eat somebody. That's why we have the American milking Devon to mix with the Jersey. The meatier and the milkier blended makes a better meat. What are we gonna do? Yeah, Phyllis is coming. You want in, honey?

Come on.

You guys watch the background because I don't want that little calf nursing, okay? So we'll get him in just a second. Then we hired Jason from Sow the Land to take down our old desk, guys, in the kitchen and put up new shelving to help us organize that terribly cluttered area.

What could happen?

Uh, if we turn it on, it'll start shocking.

It isn't on.

We'll bring it over here then.

It's not reaching.

Put it to this. Here.

It doesn't reach.

There you go. The third thing that happened, we began to train Laurel. I know zero— Thanks for the kiss. About training dogs, let alone herd dogs, but I did find a local guy to help me. And he's coming in a few weeks, but we have to establish some things before we do any herding. Okay, so let's get these guys in. Hey, hey, hey! Is she nursing? Is she nursing? Ah, oh good, she wasn't nursing. This went awful yesterday. Flossie ended up just busting all the fences. Going after her calf. See, the calf just done busted that. To fortify these lanes for calves, that's the long-term plan. Make these lanes so tight sheep could come through here. Okay, watch, watch. Hey, hey, she just goes right through it and it's on. Is that not on? Why does she do that? Let's get rid of one of our problems here. Come on, let's get this fence back up. Okay, she's gonna bust through that one too now. Okay, here's Okay, that's probably too high. Now if we can just catch the calf, we'll have control of it. Okay, you stay there, Josiah. I'm gonna catch the calf.

Just let her get shocked. Let her get shocked.

Why is it not shocking her? We have to train her to do it. It's the craziest thing. Here we go, here it goes. Hey, can you come? This is just no use.

Jesse, are you ready?

Yeah.

Where's your knife?

Uh, it's inside.

Okay, well let's get it. Calm down, we're working on her, we're working on training her. She's got the laying down pat. Yeah. What are your names?

I'm Joshua Snyder.

I'm Jessica.

Okay, we got guests with us today. We came on a really good day. So much going on. We got to move pigs, we got to kill rooster, we gotta, uh, cut down locust trees, put it on the bed. Big day. Yeah, we have 3 roosters for a reason, for culling purposes, or if something gets one of them. We just need one to breed, uh, so we have 3. We're gonna have to get rid of one today. You did say he was pretty, didn't you? He is. He was actually my favorite, my bet, my choice. He was our choice rooster. Unfortunately, he attacks us when we come get the eggs, and that's a problem when that's Mr. Brown. This is sad, but it would be even sadder if Mr. Brown lost an eye or got a claw into his head or something like that. So watch your fingers, remember, right above the jaw.

Right here?

Yeah, do it hard. Let him be— let him be— his nerves. Can't feel anything now because it's got no blood going to his brain. We had another rooster over the weekend and I gave it to the big guy, the big pigs, and I was sort of disturbed that they didn't eat it. I don't know if they're not trained to it, or maybe these bigger traditional pigs don't eat it. But I'm gonna test it. I'm testing it this morning. They're hungry, they haven't had feed, so let's see if they'll— if they'll eat that.

They're eating the head.

It's sad. It's sad because we wanted— that was our prize for Easter, except for the attitude. These others, we have two other roosters in there. Okay, so we're gonna get two of those guys and see what one— well, we're gonna— yeah, but the thing is, as bad as this is, the pigs help make a bad thing a good thing. Like, that's turning into bacon and sausage right now. So we're gonna let these guys out one at a time, okay? And catch the roosters. You gonna hold it? You'll hold one rooster. Okay, you want to hold him? Hold him just like that. We're going to pick the best one. I'm going to choose for meat and for egg-laying ability. Right off the bat, I don't really like that comb. That's a jacked-up comb. This is a better looking comb, but we're not in it for show, okay? So we're gonna feel for weight, we're gonna look at the size of their head, and we're gonna feel the size of their head. He's not gonna lay eggs, but his offspring are. And his spouse is. We're gonna feel the width of his head. You want a wide— the wider the head, the bigger the eggs. That one's already got a much bigger head, so this guy wins in head. So, so far he's gonna make better eggs. Now another test right here.

This—

there's a tip bone right here. I wish I could show you on a carcass, but there, there, there are these back two bones right here. I can get about two fingers in right there. You want to hold him, Jonah? Maybe a hair to spare. On a hen, that— that big— bigger that is, the better they're going to be at laying eggs. This guy's much bigger. I could almost get 3 fingers in there. Now let me feel this guy and wait. Come here. I should get my scale, but— all right, now hold this for a second. Always hold.

Yeah.

Okay, he's much heavier, so he wins the heavyweight. He's gonna make better meat chicken. So already he's making better layers and better meat. I don't even know if I need to go on. But there is one more test.

What is it?

He's got two bones in the back right near the vent. That's very little on this guy. It's maybe one and a half, one and a half finger. This one even smaller. I can't believe it. That's really small. Okay, so we keep the white one. So this, this one, he'll be our spare. Okay, but we're gonna put him in our flock of Isis. There's no other roosters in there. I think you can just drop him in. Oh, he's gonna love it. He's already dancing with him. Look. Oh look, she's pecking back.

That looks kind of good.

They're all kind of white. I say he's fitting right in. Why?

He doesn't have any rooster to fight with.

That's right. So it's relatively peaceful. And I'm pretty sure, because there's so many of them, they know the routine. They'll go up and he'll follow them. Okay, we haven't fed. We should go in there and feed those guys now. Hey, did y'all eat the chicken? They left it. That's disturbing. Hey, you guys are not getting a vote for our homestead pig. A homestead pig has got to eat chicken. Chicken. Okay, there they go. All right, give them some time, they'll eat it. These guys are gonna stay, but we're gonna move the chickshaw back. Okay, these guys are just gonna leave here. Normally we move them over every 2 weeks, but I think they could use more work because this is where they were and it could, it could have used more work. See all the green coming up, especially with the warmer weather? So we don't have anywhere to put these big pigs, so let's actually put the big pigs in here. We got our nets up. We got one sheep net and we had another pig net We're putting up another— oh, this is a chicken. Oh no, we're getting some fence off of our— we protected this garden, we took that side of it and made our lane there, and then we're gonna take this side and make a lane here. These guys ate it. Good for you guys, that cheers me on since we're getting this kind of pig in the spring. That's a mud really. The chicken dies or we have to cull something. That's good there, Josh. Let's get stuff out of the way here. Since they are trained to the fence, it does not necessarily have to be on. Let's clear our path though. So we got some feed pans, Jonah, in our new area. All right, Josh, you'll be the cameraman here. Okay, let's get them onto our bucket. Jonah, can you come lift this?

Oh boy, oh boy.

Okay, this is weird how they're not so crazy with the bucket. The guinea hogs would follow this bucket. Come on. Now we got to get this A-frame, which has not been Shaw-ified, from here. It's buried. Oh, that wheel's not even on. Oh yeah, that door was already jacked, so it doesn't really matter. He-Man military guy here today. Come on, Air Force! It's hung up back there. Oh, look at that dirt it's on, dude. You know what, let's do— I'll pick up one side, you— oh, or that.

Now we're gonna run you over.

This is crazy bumpy. I don't know how I did this with a sprained leg by myself, but Jonah, I think we're just gonna pick it up. Can you turn the fence off first?

What? I don't know.

That'd make it too easy, Josh.

Hilarious thing I've ever seen. Shoot, man, I'll open it for you guys. Why don't I open it? All right, Papa, hurry, the pigs can get out. Come on, move it. Is my bucket broke out?

You're actually going to try to ride one of them big pigs?

Yeah.

Is this pig actually going to run or is it going to start jumping?

I have no idea. He ain't even moving. There you go. Oh, that's like a rodeo ride there, buddy. That's your first rodeo ride. How was it?

Good.

Oh man, there you go. Yeah, ride that bull. Come here, come here. Lily, you gonna try?

Okay, now we're gonna go milk.

So I've been milking her now Almost a week since she started dropping her milk. She hasn't kicked. She's still a little careful. I'm not right in front of her milking yet, but I am milking. I've gotten brave enough to sit behind her. One cool thing about Aunt Flossie is it gushes out. She just gets so much milk so fast. Let me hear that hit that pail. Phyllis is like, she's She's holding it back on us.

I'm still a little nervous she's gonna kick, but she hasn't kicked yet.

I'm gonna give it a couple more days and then I'm gonna get bold and just sit out here in front of her. Flossy gave us over a gallon, wouldn't you say, Jonah? Yeah, gallon and a quarter. She's been outperforming you over the weekend, Phyllis. Aunt Bessie makes that calf look huge. We finished milking Phyllis. She did step in it, probably lost a quarter of a gallon. She gave a fair amount, maybe a gallon more, a gallon and a quarter, but that's a little low for her. Let's see, it's the old trick. Let's see if, uh, Nellie's calmed down enough to cooperate with us. Why, that's one reason I haven't done this. With this calf yet.

Nellie, look at the teats!

There we go. If we can get Nellie to nurse, Phyllis will let down more. Has she been eating hay too?

Yeah, she's been chowing.

Here we go, here we go, guys.

Hey, Papa. Watch.

She stayed on for a little bit. She's let down the milk again.

You're like, but what? Oh, come on, just a little bit more.

All right, give me the milk pail, please.

Oh yeah, we're going to have two gallons, Pop.

You really got more.

You need one me to milk?

Mm-hmm.

That was amazing. All right, super diverse day today. We're about to get some— what would you call it— edging for the garden, some locust posts. And Laura, while we wait, while Miss Jonah sharpens the chainsaw, let's work on you a little bit, okay?

Laura, come, let's go this way and let's go out of sight.

Okay, Laurel, come!

Yeah, she likes it!

She likes this training session.

You're going nuts!

I'm all the way on the other side of the barn. Okay, Laurel, come! Thank you, Jonah, for getting our So sharp. Let's hope it—

you want to break the chain?

Let's hope it starts. 1, 2, 3.

That didn't take us as far as I hoped it would. 1, 2, 3 logs. We are gonna have to leave you guys here. It's raining, so we're gonna go cut the next, next tree. We'll see where that gets us. Okay, forgot to get that last shot, but we got 3 trees. We did it. Now to bury them slightly where we want them. Maybe 2 or 3 inches below the surface. I like it a lot. It's a beautiful one. Look at it. Very much approved. We dug it down a few inches. Oh, that means we can put the dirt back on this side. That means we can do this side. How's it going in here, Beck?

It's going great. Making soup.

For lunch, I like to call it lamb ball soup, but that's not— that's not a great name for it. What do we call it?

It's lamb meatball soup.

Lamb meatball soup. And that's not from our lamb, is it?

Um, I doubt it.

I bet it's from the Warden Wilson, but at least our soft-boiled eggs are from the farm. Done with lunch. We've got one side completely in. Doesn't that— doesn't this look better? Doesn't this look— this is just natural, just has a natural look, goes well with these rocks. We've got to clean this up. Look, we've put the mulch back up near the, the locust post. This is once every 30-year job, Jonah, these locust posts. So I'll be 70, they'll go 30, you'll be 40, 41, you'll be my age. You'll be my age when it's time to redo these. All right, let's finish up. Gotta get one more little piece. We might be able to get it from this excess. Hey, now the real test. The beautiful one test. Rebecca, Rebecca, come out and see this. Oh, Jonah, move the saw. So ugly, the orange.

Oh wow, this looks so good.

Whoa, girl, lay something.

You want to look like you want to work on?

Lie down.

Hey, lie down.

I found it.

So I say all you got to do is plant. Yeah, do a very light layer of mulch. Okay, the boys have worked hard on my projects today. Time for a little love on their project. Jonah, what are you building now?

Organizing place for my drills.

Okay, let me see the inside of it. And what do we lack on it?

I would like some shelves on the side.

Okay, let's see. Okay, so you got a little organizer thing for your tools.

Yeah, I'd like to put some shelves around. Stuff like that.

Shelves on the side?

Yeah.

How about just a floor on the bottom?

Well, the problem with that is, look— oh, I guess I could put this on.

You could put a, uh, for that you could put a board across here. Yeah, like that might even do. See if it'll fit in there. See if that'll fit in there. Look, I think it does. And then, and then put it down a little lower so you screw that in, and then you have a edge to put your shelf on top of.

Yeah, so let's get—

so let's just do that. There it is, you got a bottom shelf, buddy. Good job, way to keep building, my friend. Yep, way to keep building.